Michael Schwartz
>Whether we use RQ2, RQ3, Aria, or something of our own creation, it
>is the Gloranthan milieu which we ultimately enjoy, not the game
>system.
Is this true for us all? At first was it? I bought RQ because
I knew about Glorantha from Nomad Gods. But I kept playing RQ because
I liked the system. After a couple of years, the world once more
began to surpass the system in importance.
But the RQ game system has had a major impact on the
evolution of Glorantha. Here are just a few ways in which I believe
this has occurred.
- RQ has weak magic for everyone. Hence, Glorantha has
extremely common weak magic. Earlier writings don't imply this -- it
came about as a result of RQ's mechanics. But the fact that even a
peasant has appropriate magic adds a lot of flavor to the world, I
feel. Very few other games have such widespread magic.
- No character classes. If a system using character classes
had been used for Glorantha, who can doubt but what it would bear
little or no resemblance to its current form.
- RQ, unlike most games, makes it easy to create non-human
PCs, even weird ones like griffins or giants. In addition, RQ
non-humans are _significantly_ different from humans. The
multiplicity and alien nature of Glorantha's nonhumans testifies to
the usefulness of this particular RQ quality.
There are others, but I don't have time for an essay on this
now. Anyway, I'm not arguing that a different game system could not
have served Glorantha, but it would have been a different Glorantha.
Sandy P.